be put upon him for the recompencing of the ignominy and abasement of his first coming in the flesh I come now to the ends of this Meeting And the ends why the Saints ascend to meet Christ in the Air we may conceive to be such as these 1. Their publick Reception and owning by Christ 2. Their full and perfect Justification 3. The Consummation of their unptial Contract 4. Their Consession or Sitting together with Christ in the Judgment 5. Their compleat and sinal Benediction or blessed Sentence 6. Their solemn and triumphant Attondance on the Judg going to take possession of the Kingdom These or the like ends of the Saints meeting with the Lord in the Air are not obscurely hinted to us in Scripture The first is Their publick reception and owning by Christ come now to judge the world The Elect Angels having gathered together the Elect Saints according to the Commission upon which they were sent forth Go ye and gather my Saints together unto me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and having carried them up into the Air where the Judge stayeth for them for he will do nothing until they come I say their Angels shall now present them before Him in the rich and glorious attire of their now perfected Resurrection wherein their once vile bodies are now made like to Christ his glorious body With gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought into the King's presence and the first publick Act which the King shall do is solemnly to receive them Come ye blessed of my Father and embraceing them in his armes and kissing them as it were as Joseph once did his Brethren in the open view of Heaven and Earth he will solemnly own them and acknowledg them and that First in their Persons and Relation unto himself A Prerogative long-before promised Mal. 3.17 Christ will own the Saints 1. In their persons They shall be mine when I make up my Jewels That is the very work which Christ is now come about to make up his Jewels to lay them up in their Heavenly Cabinet And the first word he will speak is These are mine he appropriates them for his own they be mine my Jewels my Gems my * Sâ—gullah precious Treasure As the Saints have not been ashamed of Christ before men so neither will Christ now be ashamed of them before his Father Luk 9 Heb. 1.11 2 In their Relations and all his mighty Angels he will not be ashamed to call them Brethren yea he will appropriate them as his Children a Seed given him of his Father as the great reward of is Passion saying These be the Children which God hath given me Ver. 13. my Sons and my Daughters who have served me thus he owns them in their Relations Secondly 3. In their Duâ—ies and attendance He will own and acknowledg all the holy duties publick and private which they have done in obedience to his Commands their hearing praying fasting and afflicting their Souls for their own sins and for other mens sins their fearing of God and laying to heart the reproaches of Religion and Blasphemies cast upon his Name their mutual holy conferences Mal. 3.16 one with another c. All these were written in a book of Remembrance of old and laid up before him that they might never be forgotten and now the Book shall be brought forth and read in the Audience of the world for their greater honour even the very secret duties which they have performed in their Closets when no eye saw them but God's even they shall be proclaimed in the Audience of this Universal Assembly at the last day Mat 6.6 Thy Father which saw in secret will now reward thee openly not a prayer but it was filed up not a sigh Psal 56.8 nor groan but it is booked not a tear but is botled not an holy ejaculation but was upon Record and shall be now publickly produced and acknowledged I know your Works and your Labour and your Charity and your Service Rev. 2.19 and your last Works to be more then the first c. Thirdly 4. In their fidelity and perseverance Rev. 2 13. Jesus Christ at that day will own the fidelity of his Saints their constancy and perseverance in their holy Profession and confess them before all the world I know your Works and where you have dwelt even where Satan's seat was and you have held fast my Name Chap. 2.10 and have not denied my Faith even in those days wherein Antipas Cranmer Ridley Latimer c. were my faithful Martyrs who were slain among you where Satan dwelleth behold to you who have been faithful to the death do I now give a Crown of Life To you who have overcome do I grant to sit with me in my Throne Chap. 3.21 as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne 5 In their sufferings Fourthly He will own and acknowledg the Saints in their sufferings for his sake All the reproaches hard speeches * Lâ—quntur lapides incivilities abuses scandals persecutions which ever they sustained in their names persons lively-hoods and lives upon Christ's and the Gospels account he will acknowledg and bespeak them in some such language as this Isa 66.7 Your Brethren which hated you that cast you out for my names sake said * So mocking God and deriding the Godly for their confidence in God Luk. 22.28 29 30. 6. In all the Offices of love done to him or his Let the Lord be glorified but now I appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Or as he once encouraged his Disciples in the days of his flesh You are they which have continued with me in my temptations and behold I appoint unto you a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed unto me that you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome c. Fifthly and lastly The Lord Jesus will own all the Services and Offices of Love done to Himself or to any of his Members Cloathing Feeding Visiting them when Sick coming to them when in Prison He will acknowledge all before Heaven and Earth yea what they themselves have forgotten never thought-worthy of their own notice much less of Christ's notice Lord when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c Observe by the way the difference between Saints and Shadows Hypocrites can boast of what they never truly did they can own what God will disown We have fasted say they nay saith God In the day of your fast ye find pleasure ye fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness c. We have say they afflicted our Soul no such thing saith God Ye have bowed down the head like a bul-rush for a day ye have spread Sack-cloath and Ashes under you Is this a Fast will you call this Soul-afflicting if you will I will not I but now
which shall fill the memory and the remembrance of them comparing the type with the antitype if I may so say things past with things present will fill the Soul with admiration and delight If any thing of evil do occur whether of sin affliction as soon as ever it enters within that glorious firmament it loseth the nature of evil and is naturalized into matter of rejoycing and thankfulness In a word the entire Image of God Eph. 5.1 It was their duty in the state of grace it shall be their infinite dignity in the state of glory which was imprinted upon the Soul in the first Creation and reprinted upon it though in an imperfect character in the new Creation shall now be perfected to the life in the Regeneration the Saints shall be as like God as ever they can look as like God as ever Children were like their Father so that there will be nothing but looking and liking the one upon the other Prevent that holy gaze now oh ye children of the most high God be often taken up in the beholding and contemplation of the face of your heavenly Father behold will it not Quicken you to duty Comfort you in your droopings Cause you to overlook the contempt of the world with an holy pride And even be the dawnings of glory upon your faces whereby some line and lineaments of beauty shall be added daily to that blessed draught begun already against that day Once more before we go off from this pleasing contemplation add we The very bodies of the Saints shall share in this blessed conformity as well as the soul It had its degree in the first Paradise man had a kind of resemblance to God in the very make of his body The bodies of the Saints Os homini sublims dâ—dit caelumque tueri jussit c. beautiful upright active no such visible picture of God in Heaven or Earth as man was not Sun Moon or Stars not Earth and Sea or the visible Heavens themselves have so much of their Maker in them as the body of man his very corporeal sences had much of God in them they were Vestigia Dei though not Imago one might easily have known who was their Father But now in glory saith the Apostle Our vile body shall be fashioned like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 The glorified body of Christ next to the divine essence to which it is hypostatically united shall be the glory and the wonder of Heaven and our body saith the Apostle shall be like his conformable unto his glorious body What a mirrour of glory will the Saints be in their souls conform'd to the divine nature and their body conform'd to the glory of the humane nature of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Oh wonderful astonishing transfiguration Well said the Apostle It doth not yet appear what we shall be surely eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither can it enter into the heart of man c. This will be an infinite compensation to the Saints of God for all their holy endeavours of being like to God that as obedient Children they have been followers of their heavenly Father Eph. 5.1 and for all the reproaches and abasements they susteined from a reprobate world because of those endeavours The earth was not able to bear the hard speeches wherewith the enemies of God have reproached the footsteps of Gods anointed ones labouring to insist in the steps of their heavenly Father willing to be Nonconformists to the will and lusts of men and striving to be conformable to the will and pattern of their holy King and Law giver the Lord Jesus the King of Saints Now I say it shall be no shame nor grief of heart unto them when they shall reap the fruit of their weak and imperfect conformity on earth in the most full and perfect consummation of that conformity in heaven when behold whatsoever is glorious and wonderful in the person of their glorious Redeemer or in the thrice glorious and blessed Trinity the very print and Character of it shall be stampt upon the glorified Saints in their created capacities causing them to appear not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as so many Angels but even to resemble God himself and to shine as so many Christs in the Kingdom of their heavenly Father and they that laughed them to scorn shall see it and their faces being filled with shame their consciences with horrour and their hearts with envy they shall now revile and curse themselves howling out Wisd 5.4 We fools accounted their lives madness c. Oh how much better are the reproaches of Christ than all the grandieur and applause in the world Be of good chear all ye Servants of God the time is coming when you shall not repent of your conformity to God and Christ in holiness but shall ever sing I thank the Lord who gave me counsel and taught me to chuse the better part which shall never be taken away from me I come now to the Complement and perfection of this last fruit and consequent of Christ his coming the Saints cohabitation and fellowship with the Lord namely The extent and duration of it in this particle ever We shall ever be with the Lord. The extent and duration ever Ever a little word but of immense signification a Child may speak it It was a witty reply of a Grandchild of Doctor Reynolds now Bishop of Norwich He asking the Child How long Eternity is The Child answered If you will tell me how long half eternity is I will tell you how long whole eternity is but neither Man nor Angel can understand it Oh who can take the demensions of eternity Yea who can tell me how long half eternity is Behold I shew you a Mystery half eternity is eternity yea every part and particle of eternity is eternity for eternity is not made up of hours or dayes or years or lustrums or jubiles or ages or millions of Ages the whole space between the creation of the world and the dissolution of it would not make a day in eternity yea so many years as there be dayes in that space would not fill up an hour in eternity Eternity is one entire Circle beginning and ending in it self This present world which is measured out by such divisions and distinctions of times is therefore mortal and will have end 2 Cor. 4.18 If eternity did consist of finite times though never so large and vast it would not be eternity but a longer tract of time only that which is made up of finite is finite Eternity is but one immense indivisible point wherein there is neither first nor last Deus est octus simplicissimus ex quo omnia sâ—nt in â—uem omnio redeuâ— beginning nor ending succession or alteration but is like God himself one and the same for ever From hence we infer this Doctrine The blessedness of the Saints in Heaven is everlasting Their
God they can afford him little ground of Confidence alas hinc illae lachryâ—ae hence his fears and doubts and diffidence do arise His Prayers need Pardon his Tears need washing Job 10. his very Righteousness will Condemn him here is no place for the sole of his foot to stand uponâ— If thou Lord should'st mark iniquity O Lord Psal 30.3 who shall stand Gal. 2.19 This was that which scared Paul from coming to the Law for Justification Why saith he I through the Law am dead to the Law q. d. That I seek not to the Law for Justification and Life The Law may thank it self I come to the Law for Justification and it convinceth me of sin I plead my innocence that I am not so great a Sinner as others are I plead my Righteousness my duties and good meanings and good desires and it tells me They are all too leight the best of my duties will not save me but the least of my sins will damn me It tells me mine own Righteousnesses do Job 9.20.21 as filthy rags defile me and my duties themselves do witness against me I plead Repentance and it laughs me to scorn It tells me my Repentance needs Pardon and my Tears need washing Besides if they were never so good What careth it for my Repentance It looketh for my Obedience perfect and personal which because I have not it tells me I am Cursed and pronounceth Sentence and when it hath so done it hath no mercy at all for me though I seek it carefully with Tears What can I expect from so severe a Judg I l'e come no more at that Tribunal Behold I appeal to the Gospel there Repentance will pass and Tears will find pitty there imperfect obedience so sincere will find acceptance though not to Justification There there is a better Righteousness provided for me an exact perfect Righteousness as perfect as that of the Law for it is indeed the very Righteousness of the Law though not performed by me yet by my Surety for me The Lord my Righteousness I here 's a foundation for the feet of my Faith to stand upon here I can have pardon of all my debts though the Law will not abate me one farthing here be long white Robes though I never spun a thread of them with my own fingers To this Tribunal will I come and here will I wait for my Justification If I Perish I Perish Yea here Obj. may one say is foundation for presumption to stand on here 's a Bed for Security to sleep in here 's a doctrine to send men merrily to Hell while they break the Law to tell them There is one that hath fulfilled it for them while they sin Christ hath Righteousness enough to justifie them Surely this is a doctrine that makes God not only the Justifier of Sinners but the Justifier of sin too So disputed the Free-will men of those times against the Apostles and so the Free-will men of our times against us but for Answer 1. Answ The Apostle disclaims the Consequence with a vehement negation Absit q. d. God forbid any one should be so impudent to force such a scandalous Conclusion upon such immaculate Premises 2. He shews the reason of it and the reason is taken from the New Covenant wherein God hath inseparably joyned the merit of Christs Cross and the power of Christs Cross together in so much that whosoever hath a share in the merit of the Cross for Justification hath also an interest in the power of his Cross for Mortification He instanceth in himself Verse 20. I am Crucified with Christ q. d. While through grace I appeal to the merit of Christ's death for my Justification I can also through grace evidence my appeal to be Scriptural by the power of the Cross whereby the World is Crucified to me and I to the World Gal. 6.14 And as it is with me so it is with all truly justified persons for they that are Christ's have Crucified the flesh with the Lusts and Affections thereof They have Crucified them Gal. 5.24 and they do Crucifie them they are upon the Cross and with their Lord and Redeemer refuse to come down till they can say with him It is finished therefore let the scandal of the Cross and of Justification cease for ever The Sinner's necessity to such a justification in the day of Judgment Phil. 3.6 Inveniri in Christo tacitam habet relationem ad Dei judicium in ijs nullam invenit condemnationem quia justitiá qualem esse requirit i. e. perfectâ ac cumulatâ exornatos nos invenit nempe justitia Christi per sidem nebis imputaâ—a Bern. in loc Secondly The other indispensable necessity the Sinner hath of such a Righteousness to his Justification is For the securing of his Appearance in the day of Judgment The great Apostle who had as fair a shew for a legal Justification as any other in the world protesteth he dares not think of appearing without this positive Righteousness in the last and dreadful Judgment But oh that I may be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law In Him in Christ not in my self in his Mediatory Righteousnes not in mine own Personal Righteousnesses away with them they are but filthy Rags rotten Clouts dogs-meat in comparison of Christ's Robes Give me the Righteousness which is of God by Faith of Gods Ordination and of Faith's Application That that the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled by Christ in my behalf and then the Law cannot say black is mine eye I fear it not In that if I appear not I am undone for ever Behold here is the Sinner's necessity of such a Justification Peace of Conscience and Boldness in the day of Judgment I come to the fourth Accompt The Excellency of the Redeemer This way of justifying believing Sinners doth infinitely become the excellency of our glorious Redeemer set forth Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us saith the Apostle who is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners made higher than the Heavens Holy By Gods special and immediate Vnction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Consecration of him to his office 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Harmeless He did no sin neither was there guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 He that would expiate the guilt of others must have none of his own so expounded Verse 27. Vndefiled Immaculate in respect of his humane Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as of the divine without the lest stain or spot of a sinful Nature in him to the same end also he must be Separate from Sinners conceived and born 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not after the Law of other the Sons Daughters of Adam for that which is born of flesh is flesh Made higher than the Heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of an higher Perfection than all created Powers in Heavenly Places whether Angels or